Friday, March 5, 2010

Winter 2009 Cui Feng High Mountain Oolong

My Chinese teacher's parents are a very generous and welcoming couple. They claim to "not know much about tea," but I think they are just being modest, because last year they gave me an unforgettable tea gift. It was a Winter '08 He Huan Shan High Mountain oolong (合歡山高山烏龍茶) (the same one I blogged about here).

During my January 2010 trip to Taiwan, they insisted on giving me even more incredible tea! I am totally not worthy of such generosity (all I got them was a little Seattle calender). This time I was gifted a 300 gram bag of Winter '09 He Huan Shan and one of Winter '09 Cui Feng High Mountain Oolong (翠峰高山烏龍茶). I really need to step up my gift giving the next time I see them!

Cui Feng translates to "bluish-green peak" and is yet another place I'd never heard of before. I emailed my friend Shiuwen (of Floating Leaves Tea Company) who said she believes Cui Feng is a part of the Lishan (梨山) area. If any of my readers have anymore information to share about Cui Feng tea, I'd love to see some comments.

The only writing on the bag says "產地翠峰."(and that just means = Origin Cui Feng)

I haven't broken into my new bag of He Huan Shan yet (I'm waiting for a special occasion) but I have already made quite the dent in my bag of Cui Feng. This tea is "off the hook amazing" and begs to be recorded in the ole tea blog.

The dry leaves appear large and succulent with a sweet mellow aroma that reminds me of butterscotch.

Take a look at these beautiful fatties.

The flavor is silky and milky with a touch of baked sugar aroma. The body is thick and smooth and, like any good tea, has a pleasant way of sitting in my stomach. Most of the infusions were round and malty but a few had bright little lilac and unripe pear peaks on certain parts of the tongue that kept things really interesting.

I can't be sure if they're always this good... but if you ever do cross paths with Cui Feng oolong tea, I'd definitely recommend you try some.

3 comments:

Sounds great. If you ever want to meet up at Floating Leaves and drink tea with Shiuwen, let me know. I've learned so much from her. Having the two of you in the same room would be quite the tea-knowledge experience.